Area between the Foundling and Harrison estates: Church land

Grey areas: fragmented ownership and haphazard development; already built up by 1800

About the Duke of Bedford’s Estate

For many people the Bedford estate and Bloomsbury are synonymous, although sales of land in the twentieth century have reduced the original 112 acres to a mere 20 (Survey of London, vol. 5, 1914; Shirley Green, Who Owns London?, 1986)

The Bloomsbury holdings of the Duke of Bedford originated as the estate of Thomas Wriothesley, later Earl of Southampton, who acquired them at the dissolution of the monasteries in 1545 (Camden History Society, Streets of Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia, 1997)

This estate was inherited by Rachel (née Wriothesley), daughter of the fourth Earl of Southampton, when the Southampton title became extinct; it passed into the Russell family, Dukes of Bedford, through her marriage to the heir of the first Duke of Bedford

It was the widow of the fourth Duke, Gertrude Leveson-Gower, who was a prime mover in the residential development of the estate, which began in the late eighteenth century and was continued by her grandson, the fifth Duke, in the early nineteenth century (Camden History Society, Streets of Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia, 1997)

Much of this development was in the form of “wide streets and grand squares fit for the gentry” (Camden History Society, Streets of Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia, 1997); Donald Olsen described it as “the systematic transformation of the pastures of northern Bloomsbury into a restricted upper-middle class suburb” (Donald Olsen, Town Planning in London, 2nd edn, 1984)

It was a well-timed development;
the Bedford Estate’s Bloomsbury rental was worth about £13,800 in 1805, but jumped to £17,242 in 1806 because of all the new buildings (Donald Olsen, Town Planning in London, 2nd edn, 1984)

By 1816 it was nearer £25,000, and by 1819 the London rental income was as much as all the other Bedford estates put together; by 1880 it was worth £65,791 (Donald Olsen, Town Planning in London, 2nd edn, 1984)

The very northern part of the estate was, however, swampy and more difficult to build on, a problem exacerbated by the building slump of the 1830s, which led to areas like Gordon Square being part-developed and left unfinished for decades (Donald Olsen, Town Planning in London, 2nd edn, 1984)

For the crucial part played by Thomas Cubitt in the development of this estate, see Hermione Hobhouse, Thomas Cubitt: Master Builder (1971)

The size and quality of the houses meant that for the most part, the Bedford estate was never likely to turn into a slum: “Except for Abbey Place and the other narrow courts east of Woburn Place, the Bloomsbury estate had no slums. Even its narrow streets south of Great Russell Street—such as Gilbert, Little Russell, and Silver streets—were, if undeniably lower-class in character, far superior to the streets just west and south of the estate” (Donald Olsen, Town Planning in London, 2nd edn, 1984)

However, as the area became more popular and convenient as a location for institutions, the Bedford estate had to fight to preserve its genteel residential character; it found itself “with the task of preventing, or at least discouraging, the conversion of dwelling houses into private hotels, boarding houses, institutions, offices, and shops” (Donald Olsen, Town Planning in London, 2nd edn, 1984)

“By the middle of the century many of the huge houses in Bloomsbury had been illegally converted into private hotels...By 1892 Stutfield [the Bedford estate steward] had come to regard Montague Place as a lost cause” (Donald Olsen, Town Planning in London, 2nd edn, 1984)

By the 1890s, too, the estate had lost the battle to keep itself separate from the flow of traffic and pedestrians, originally enforced by a system of lodges, gates, and residents’ tickets of entry: “The five lodges and gates on the Bloomsbury estate—in Upper Woburn Place, Endsleigh Street, Georgiana Street (later Taviton Street), Gordon Street (originally William Street), and Torrington Place—had all been erected by 1831, presumably by Thomas Cubitt” (Donald Olsen, Town Planning in London, 2nd edn, 1984)

The removal of all these gates, except the one in Endsleigh Street, was authorised in 1890 by Act of Parliament; that of Endsleigh Street itself was authorised along with any other remaining gates in London in 1893 (Donald Olsen, Town Planning in London, 2nd edn, 1984)

Developments in transport during the century had affected the estate for decades before the 1890s: “The suburban train and the season ticket reduced the significance of Bloomsbury’s proximity to the City and the Inns of Court. To make matters worse, three of the railways chose to locate their London termini virtually at the entrances to the Bedford estate, thereby depreciating its residential value” (Donald Olsen, Town Planning in London, 2nd edn, 1984)

However, the estate “was generally successful in keeping bus and tram lines off its residential streets. For a long time the estate was able to exclude omnibuses from Hart Street (now Bloomsbury Way)...The 1806 Bloomsbury Square Act forbade hackney coaches from standing for hire in the square or within 300 feet of it. In 1886 the Bedford Office attempted, without success, to eject the cab ranks that had just been established in Tavistock and Russell squares” (Donald Olsen, Town Planning in London, 2nd edn, 1984)

The estate’s desire to maintain a certain standard of living for its residents included attention to public health issues: “In 1854 the Duke had made at his own expense sewers in Tavistock Mews, Great Russell Street, Little Russell Street, Gilbert Street, and Rose Street. The estate also was engaged at the time in a programme of installing water closets in the houses on its property, and connecting them with the new sewers, as required by law...In a letter to the Lancet that year the physician to the Bloomsbury Dispensary praised the Duke’s sanitary projects, and attributed to them the mildness of the recent cholera epidemic on his estate” (Donald Olsen, Town Planning in London, 2nd edn, 1984)

Along with concerns for the health of the residents, the estate continued to try to impose restrictions on what kind of tenants would be allowed in its houses: “The number of public houses and hotels on the estate fell from seventy-four in 1854 to fifty in 1869. By 1889 there were forty-one, and in 1893 only thirty-four...Such practices followed logically from the consistent desire to maintain Bloomsbury as an area of decency, uniformity, restraint, and above all of respectability” (Donald Olsen, Town Planning in London, 2nd edn, 1984)

The desire to maintain the integrity and amenities of the estate persisted throughout the nineteenth century: “In 1895 the Duke decided to turn the waste ground north of Tavistock Place North and behind the houses in Upper Woburn Place into a lawn tennis ground” for some of the local tenants (Donald Olsen, Town Planning in London, 2nd edn, 1984)

Efforts to continue development and improvement in response to changing circumstances were assisted by the length of the leases granted on the estate right from the start of residential development in the 1770s: a standard 99 years: thus “[t]he later years of the century saw a great deal of new building in Bloomsbury as the original building leases fell in” (Donald Olsen, Town Planning in London, 2nd edn, 1984)

The estate seized the opportunity for wholesale redevelopment of streets which were no longer suited to their location or which no longer fulfilled their original purpose, mews premises being a good example of the latter

“In 1880 the estate took down the block of houses between Store Street and Chenies Street, from the City of London’s estate on the west to Chenies Mews on the east...The estate widened Chenies Mews and formed it into the present Ridgmount Street. It proposed to let most of the vacant ground for institutions or factories, as it did not think the location suitable for dwelling houses” (Donald Olsen, Town Planning in London, 2nd edn, 1984)

“Far from being typical, the Bedford estate may well have been the best managed urban estate in England” (Donald Olsen, Town Planning in London, 2nd edn, 1984)

Bedford Square

Not to be confused with the Bedford Square in east London

Originally planned as Bedford Circus by the fourth Duke, it was eventually begun in 1771 and built 1775–1783 by the fourth Duke’s widow, Gertrude Leveson-Gower, who initiated much residential development in Bloomsbury (Camden History Society, Streets of Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia, 1997)

“No drawing has been found showing the design for the laying out of Bedford Square, which was carried out between the years 1775 and 1780” (Survey of London, vol. 5, 1914)

It is “the great survivor of the Golden Age of domestic architecture in London. There are four sides of palace-fronted terraced houses with stucco-faced pedimented centres, surrounding a leafy circular private garden” (Camden History Society, Streets of Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia, 1997)

“The building of Bedford Square and the adjacent streets inaugurated the systematic transformation of the pastures of northern Bloomsbury into a restricted upper-middle class suburb” (Donald Olsen, Town Planning in London, 2nd edn, 1984)

“There is much to support the view that Thomas Leverton was the author of the general scheme and the designer of the houses” (Survey of London, vol. 5, 1914)

The doorcases are made of Coade stone; designers who worked on the interiors included Bonomi, Angelica Kauffmann, and possibly John Flaxman (Survey of London, vol. 5, 1914)

“The quality requirements laid on the builders were stringent: facings, balustrades and windowsills had to be of Portland stone, roofs of slate, gutters and rainwater pipes of lead, floors of best Memel or Riga wood, the pavements wide and of York stone” (Camden History Society, Streets of Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia, 1997)

“Bedford Square set the pattern for later squares in London, which from that time were virtually all built to a single uniform and symmetrical design” (Olsen, Town Planning in London)

Rocque’s map of 1746 shows mainly marshy fields with a stream running through this site, which was just beyond the limit of the gardens of Montagu House

It was named after the Dukes of Bedford

Horwood’s maps show the original numbering system, which ran anti-clockwise from the south-east corner, thus: on the east side: consecutive numbers from 1 to 11, running from south to north; on the north side: consecutive numbers from 12 to 27, running from east to west; on the west side: consecutive numbers from 28 to 38, running from north to south; and on the south side: consecutive numbers from 39 to 52, running from west to east (until 1896)

In 1896 this changed with the addition of a new no. 39, built by Charles Fitzroy Doll at the south end of the west side; thereafter, the houses on the south side were renumbered as follows: consecutive numbers from 40 to 53, running from west to east

It was a prestige development designed for the privileged upper middle classes

“The first leases for the houses had to be signed by two duchesses (Bedford and Marlborough) and by Robert Palmer (the 4th duke’s man of business), and the lessee was precluded from doing anything in or upon the premises which ‘may be or grow to the annoyance, grievance, damage or disturbance of the said duchesses and Robert Palmer or their heirs’. This last condition governs the behaviour of lessees (including the University of London) to this day throughout the Bedford estate” (Camden History Society, Streets of Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia, 1997)

“The best side of Bedford Square was originally the east, as these houses backed on to the gardens of Montague House, the first home of the British Museum, with views all the way to the grounds of Bedford House, which were not built over until the early 1800s” (Camden History Society, Streets of Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia, 1997)

“In the late 18th century... Bedford Square attracted residents who, though stylish, were not in the Mayfair class nor even quite up to Portland Place. Whereas Berkeley Square in 1792 boasted 16 members of the aristocracy, including two duchesses, Bedford Square had just two lords (Camden History Society, Streets of Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia, 1997)

No. 11 on the east side was from 1783 the home of eccentric scientist Henry Cavendish, who had become very wealthy; he set up a laboratory, museum, and library in the house (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)

No. 6, in the middle of the east side, is the largest house in the square and was for a long time the official residence of the Lord Chancellor; Lord Eldon lived there from 1804 to 1815, when the houses was attacked during the Corn Law protests (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)

No. 49 (now no. 50) was the home of the Quaker John Walker, with whom Robert Owen stayed during the period 1818–1820 (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)

No. 13 on the north side was occupied by the man often credited as the square’s architect, Thomas Leverton, from 1795 to 1824; he also designed some of the interiors, including this one (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)

No. 41 (now no. 42) was occupied in the 1820s by Sir John Bayley, the judge after whom nearby Bayley Street is named (Andrew Byrne, Bedford Square: An Architectural Study, 1990)

In the 1820s no. 25 was the home of lawyer Basil Montagu and his wife Anna Skepper, née Benson, who hosted a literary salon at the house (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)

They were the stepfather and mother of Ann Skepper, who married poet ‘Barry Cornwall’ (Bryan Waller Procter) in 1824; the newlyweds lived with the Montagus in the late 1820s and early 1830s (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)

Carlyle in his Reminiscences speaks of the Montagus’ “most singular social and spiritual ménagérie”; with three previous marriages, their household included many children of all the marriages. Montagu’s older sons later “went all and sundry to the bad” (Thomas Carlyle, Reminiscences, ed. K. J. Fielding and Ian Campbell, 1997)

No. 38 was the home of Dr Neil Arnott, reforming physician and friend of Bentham

No. 35 on the west side was occupied by Thomas Wakley, senior, reformer and founder of The Lancet, from 1828–1848 (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)

From 1841 to 1855 no. 42 (now no. 43) was the home of Thomas Coates, secretary of the SDUK and Clerk to UCL (Andrew Byrne, Bedford Square: An Architectural Study, 1990)

No. 19 was occupied by poet Edward Fitzgerald from 1844 to 1848 (Camden History Society, Streets of Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia, 1997), although this is not mentioned in his Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry

No. 8 was the home in the later nineteenth century of publisher Frederick Warne, his American wife Louisa (née Fruing), and their many children (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)

No. 47 (now no. 48) on the south side was occupied from 1849 to 1873 by the Ladies’ College, later Bedford College; from 1860 to 1874 they also occupied no. 48 (now no. 49)

No. 35 on the west side was occupied from 1849–1866 by the Quaker physician Thomas Hodgkin, of Hodgkin’s disease fame (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; Andrew Byrne, Bedford Square: An Architectural Study, 1990)

In 1856 no. 24 became the home of Sir Henry Ellis, Principal Librarian at the British Museum, upon his retirement from this post; he died at his home here in 1869 (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)

The square was used, along with the author’s birthplace of Keppel Street, as the setting for Trollope’s novel Lady Anna (1873)

No. 6 on the east side was subdivided in 1880 and only restored to single occupancy over a century later

No. 52 was occupied by poet and physician Robert Bridges from 1877 to 1882 (Andrew Byrne, Bedford Square: An Architectural Study, 1990)

In 1884 no. 53 became the home of wealthy merchant and (pornographic) book collector Henry Ashbee and his wife Elizabeth (née Lavy); they moved here from Upper Bedford Place

No. 42 was occupied by Gothic revival architect William Butterfield from 1886 until his death there in 1900 (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)

“It remained a safe residential haven until 1890 and only gradually declined into offices and institutions (including publishers and learned societies) over the next 50 years” (Camden History Society, Streets of Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia, 1997)

The Bedford Estate gates were finally removed in 1890–1893

From 1893 to 1905 no. 51 was occupied by John Passmore Edwards, philanthropist and benefactor of the Passmore Edwards Settlement in Tavistock Place (Andrew Byrne, Bedford Square: An Architectural Study, 1990)

In 1896 a new no. 39 was built, designed by Bedford estate architect Charles Fitzroy Doll, on the site of an outbuilding next to no. 38; as a result, the entire row of south side houses were renumbered (old nos 39–52 becoming new nos 40–53)

No. 1 was home to author and artist Weedon Grossmith from 1903 to 1919 (Andrew Byrne, Bedford Square: An Architectural Study, 1990)